In Love And War
by Laura Schiller
Summary: Missing scene for ep. 17. "Love and war are the two most sacred tasks of any being. May they never meet." Logical Pai has more in common with his impulsive brother than he thought. Onesided K/I and P/L.


In Love And War

By Laura Schiller

Based on: Tokyo Mew Mew

Copyright: Mia Ikumi, Reiko Yoshida

"You did _what_?" Pai did not raise his voice, but its echo around the metal walls of their ship was sharp as swords.

"I did," Kisshu declared, floating with his legs crossed and his pointed chin in his hands. "And it would've worked, too. It _should_ have worked!"

"Kisshu, I'm surprised at you." The way Pai eyed his brother over the top of his computer screen made it clear the surprise was not a pleasant one.

Kisshu's head snapped up, his golden eyes narrowed to a glare. "Thanks a lot, Pai. Is it my fault that damn Blue Knight almost sliced my arm off?"

"Of course not, brother." Pai's voice lowered ever so slightly. "You couldn't have known. Rest assured we're going to get to the bottom of that mystery as soon as possible. But what you're doing to the leader of those girls – don't you see, Kisshu? It has to stop."

Kisshu flushed a darker shade of gray, landing on the floor with an ungraceful thump. "It was _your_ strategy!"

"_My _strategy was to separate them, catch them untransformed and pick them off one by one."

"Which is exactly what I did!"

"What you did was try to possess a woman – a sick woman – against her will. You were going to bring her here and take her as your mate, you told me so yourself!"

This time, Pai's voice did rise. Instinctively, both of them used their telepathic sense to check on Taruto, whom Pai considered too young to hear about this, and whose teasing Kisshu particularly wanted to avoid. Their little brother was fast asleep in his bunk, dreaming of the walking turnips he had unleashed that day, still as innocent as it was possible for one of their people to be.

"And so what?" Kisshu threw up his hands.

"Don't you see how contemptible that is?"

Kisshu laughed hoarsely. "Take a look at the sword that called the dagger too sharp, Pai. How is playing with our toys any worse than killing them?"

"They're not toys, Kisshu," said Pai.

"Only because your sense of humor is so dead it's starting to fossilize."

"_Love and war are the two most sacred tasks of every being_," said Pai, quoting from the ancient writings of Deep Blue before the exile. "_The lover shares his life-force with another; the warrior takes another's life-force for his own. Let the two never meet, for to take by force what should be freely given is a crime against the balance of the cosmos._"

For a moment, something flickered in Kisshu's yellow eyes – pain? remorse? – but then he shook his green pigtails vigorously, scoffed out loud, and drifted over to smirk into Pai's face.

"_I_ know what your problem is, big brother. You sympathize with them!"

For the first time, it was Pai's turn to blush. His hands faltered on the keyboard. He glared back at Kisshu.

"Are you calling me a traitor?"

"Cool your ears, Pai. I'm just saying. I've seen the way you look at the fishy one."

Pai's ears, far from cooling, heated visibly. "_Mew Lettuce_ is the enemy. Just because I don't objectify the Mews as toys - "

"No matter how much you _want_ to – "

"That doesn't make it any less my duty to destroy them!"

"Duty! Hmph!" Kisshu not only rolled his eyes this time, he rolled his whole body, a zero-gravity somersault of disdain that Pai had always found especially irritating.

"You missed your calling, Pai. You should've been a priest."

"And you should have been a creche minder. The children could teach you a lot about maturity."

"Ha!" Kisshu's dry chuckle at his own expense surprised them both a little; Pai hadn't come this close to joking in quite a while, and it did more to relieve the tension between them than any reasoned arguments ever could.

"You know," said Kisshu, calming down, "I'm still amazed that someone as logical as you could have so much faith in someone we've never even seen."

"Are you saying you don't?"

Kisshu shrugged. "Oh, you know me. Too many questions for my own good, Mother always said."

"That's certainly true."

"Maybe … maybe I just can't detach myself the way you do. When I fight, I don't see problems to be solved or, or a duty to be followed. I see … I see Koneko-chan in that sexy pink dress, all hot under the neckline and ready to tear me to pieces like the wild little animal she is. It's like she's Earth come to life, they're all mixed up together in my mind – if I can win one, all gorgeous and promising and full of life, I'll also have the other. Because I _want _them, and I deserve them, and they're the only things that make all this worthwhile!"

The words exploded out of Kisshu with the force of a dam breaking until, shrill and breathless, they reverberated through the room.

Pai thought of the fight he had interrupted yesterday: his brother's visible fear and frustration at the Blue Knight's eerie silence; the unmoving pink bundle under the tree that was Mew Ichigo. He thought of Mew Pudding, no older than Taruto; too young to fight, but no doubt too stubborn to refuse. He thought of Mew Lettuce that first day in the library, the shocking alien beauty of her transformation and the courage in her eyes.

Pai detached because he had to, and Kisshu played this game because he couldn't. Who knew there would be such a terribly fine line between loyalty and treason?

"I understand now, brother," he said softly. "_A soldier's strongest shield must be against the enemy within._"

Kisshu did not scoff at the quotation. Instead he bowed his head, squeezed Pai briefly on the shoulder, and floated past him into the privacy of his room.


End file.
